Comms Dealer

Softcat has announced the successful pricing of its IPO, valuing the growing company at £472.3 million and securing a number of high profile institutional investors.

The company has appointed Vin Murria to its Board of Directors as an Independent Non-executive Director.

She has significant public company experience in the IT Services space, including tenures at Computer Services Group plc and Advanced Computer Software.

Softcat's first day of trading is expected to be 18 November 2015, and the company has been asked to open the day's trading on the London Stock Exchange.

Martin Hellawell, Chief Executive Officer of Softcat, said: "The successful pricing of our initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange reflects the positive response we have received from institutional investors as we have shared our equity story in recent weeks.

"We are delighted with the outcome of the IPO process thus far and now look forward to fully focusing on the running and future development of our business.

"The Softcat employees have done a fantastic job to get us to this stage and I would like to thank them, as well as our customers and partners for the great support and encouragement they have given us. We look forward to driving the company forward together."

Vapour Media founder Tim Mercer will lead the Brighouse-based business as newly appointed CEO as he looks to build on gains already made in the cloud space following this summer's merger with Everycloud and the subsequent launch of the Cloudware range including storage, hosted servers and managed back-up, all built on Vapour's cloud platform housed in UK-based data centres.

The services are procured through a client self-serve portal, meaning additional servers and storage can be managed and activated in a matter of minutes.

Vapour is also set to release details of its Dropbox alternative file share and collaboration product.

In a promotion to the channel Mercer is offering 20% off the entire Cloudware range, as well as access to the Vapour team of cloud sales and support specialists.

Mercer said: "Businesses are savvy to the benefits that cloud can bring to their organisations, however, there are a myriad of providers in the marketplace.

"We have witnessed a massive uptake in the number of customers who are requesting backup and data storage, and following the merger earlier in the year we have been able to develop channel-ready solutions at speed.

"We believe these new solutions, as well as our bolstered team, will promote increased competition within the market and also provide customers and resellers with assurances around their business critical data, ensuring their data doesn't have to leave the UK, with storage delivered within Vapour's private UK network."

Devoteam UK has appointed Derek Nutley as Country Manager, taking over from Roddy MacLennan who led the UK business since early 2013.

Nutley joined Devoteam in 2006 following the acquisition of AuSystems.

By running the Network Transformation (telecoms) business in the UK he has successfully contributed to the move of the UK business to cloud in the last 18 months.

Nutley will continue as Network Transformation Global Offer Director, in parallel.

He said: "We are looking at the next chapter in the UK. We want to take advantage of our position in EMEA as a leading actor in Digital Transformation to drive further the deployment of our vision in the UK."

Housing association Teign Housing has deployed a ShoreTel communications system from Incom Business Systems as part of a strategic business plan to improve the customer service experience.

Comprising ShoreTel Unified Communications (UC) platform and ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Centre (ECC), the solution enables the social landlord to move closer towards the integration of all critical business applications to achieve a 360-degree view of tenants' interactions.

Teign Housing manages over 3,600 homes across South Devon from Dartmoor National Park to Newton Abbot, Teignmouth and Dawlish.

Capable of seamless integration with Teign's existing housing management and rent payment system, the ShoreTel solution delivers simplified call management, automated reporting and 99.99999 per cent operational continuity.

As a result of efficiency savings, the total cost of ownership is significantly lower, aiding Teign's compliance with the Homes and Communities Agency's Value for Money (VfM) standard.

The deployment supports 130 extensions, including 80 people at Teign's headquarters, 20 users at their shop and 20 mobile workers.

Karen Johnson, Head of Customer and Corporate Services at Teign Housing, commented: "The solution is key towards us achieving our digital inclusion strategy and will bring about efficiencies in customer transaction processing."

FCS chief Chris Pateman has called on the industry to make as much 'noise' as possible in an 'eleventh hour' representation to the Competition & Markets Authority and Government to influence the CMA's stance on opening up wholesale mobile access to the same extent as fixed line - an issue that is getting hotter by the day as BT prepares to merge with EE and the CMA's November 19th deadline for feedback fast approaches.

"The CMA’s preliminary decision on the proposed BT/EE takeover is monumentally threatening to the channel. Yet the CMA says it does not raise any significant competition concerns," said Pateman. 

"This is partly due to the CMA assessing the likely damage against market definitions which are 13 years out of date.

"They come from the 2002 EU Common Regulatory Framework - drawn up at a time when WLR seemed like a novel idea, and about the sexiest thing you could do with a mobile phone was send a text. Hardly the best basis, in our view, for determining the threats to the converged current and future communications market."

Pateman noted that the CMA has conceded that comms is a complicated market and so left the provisional conclusions open for comment - nominally until January 18th.

"Don't be fooled by that final deadline," warned Pateman in a letter to FCS members. "The CMA confirmed to us that if we want to be taken seriously, we've got until 5pm on November 19th to make meaningful representations."

"We know FCS and our colleagues at iMVNOx, the MVNO industry body, are not the only ones burning the midnight oil against this deadline. And FCS will be doing everything we can to work with other voices, and to harness and focus industry push-back as the process moves forward.

"But right now, we as an industry have just days to make as much noise as we can. Business CPs are pushing on a more responsive door with policy makers today than at any time since BT was privatised.

"Make sure your local MP understands your concerns. A few well chosen questions in Parliament at this stage could mean the difference between success and failure. Or, at least, the difference between no remedies or controls whatever and a new regulatory regime that will open up a genuine wholesale market for mobile voice and data."

Managed services provider Claranet has launched a new service that allows customers to securely connect to public cloud platforms.

The service, Cloud Connect, links customers to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure via Claranet's own private MPLS network, removing the need to transmit data over the public Internet and therefore bypassing data transfer charges from Claranet.

Neil Thomas, Claranet's product director, said: "Over the past few years, we have been working hard to ensure that we've got a complete portfolio of network services to allow our customers to pick the best option for each application.

"Cloud Connect is a key part of our networking strategy, enabling customers to connect to the big public cloud platforms using their own corporate networks.

"Avoiding the public Internet, the connection is more stable and secure, providing the opportunity for customers host their internal, business critical applications on these platforms while keeping their data within their own private networks.

"Both Azure and AWS have tools that can allow businesses to plug directly into their services via the Internet. However, if your application is for internal customers only - or you want to consume data sources from internal applications within your public facing application - then having a link over your private network gives you more consistent performance with enhanced security."

Claranet's Cloud Connect service is provided through a partnership between Claranet and Telecity Group, using the Cloud-IX platform.

Hybrid workforce solutions provider Gibbs S3 is warning that the shortage of qualified cyber security specialists is becoming critical for businesses.

Measures introduced by the UK Government, including Cyber Essentials, a programme aimed at providing basic cyber security awareness at quickly and cheaply for SMEs are laudable and should be continued, noted Farida Gibbs, CEO and Founder of Gibbs S3..

"But these initiatives are insufficient when it comes to combating modern Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) which threaten British businesses," said Gibbs. "In 2015 alone, Ashley Madison, TalkTalk, Harvard University and the IRS have all be victims of sophisticated and damaging hacks.

"The range and severity of threats, coupled with the desperate shortage of skilled staff means that the majority of British telcos are fighting an increasingly complex war with clearly insufficient resources.

"This issue is compounded by the fact that standing still is not an option - firms need to be far more proactive in beefing up their digital defences as the hackers who are looking to get in are constantly evolving and mutating their attacks."

The dangers are not limited purely to larger companies either. Recent research from KPMG has found that 70 per cent of SMEs can do significantly more to protect sensitive client data.

"It is a truly worrying statistic when considering that the same research found that 94 per cent of enterprise procurement departments considered cyber-security protocols to be a key factor in deciding which suppliers to use," added Gibbs.

"The inability for small firms to provide adequate cyber-security protection is now causing small businesses significant revenue losses, an untenable state of affairs."

Punam Tiwari, Senior Legal Counsel and Data Protection Specialist at Gibbs S3, said: "We've now seen CEOs of major companies lose their jobs because of cyber attacks which should be a serious wake-up call about the consequences.

"Companies should start from the assumption that their systems have been infiltrated by criminals and operate on that basis, yet many businesses are simply failing to act. Companies can no longer afford to casually dip in and out of the market, assuming that they will find qualified people when they need them.

"There needs to be a greater commitment to data protection and cyber security training across the UK with businesses also carefully assessing and planning how they will bring on cyber-security experts at a moments notice - whether that is for a crisis scenario or not."

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Tech Data Europe has been named 'Distributor of the Year - Best Newcomer 2015' at the EMEA Dell Solutions Conference 2015.

The awards ceremony, which took place on Wednesday 4th November at MetaStadt, Vienna, celebrated and recognized the business achievements of Dell partners and distributors.

Accepting the award on behalf of the company were Michael Urban, senior vice president, Broadline, CE, Procurement and Services and Simon England, senior vice president, Value Added Business and managing director, Azlan, Europe, who collected the award from senior Dell management including Michael Dell, CEO and Chairman.

"This award is a fantastic vote of confidence for the growing partnership between Dell and Tech Data Europe" said Urban.

"Over the last year, we have extended the reach of Dell's products and solutions across the vast majority of our European reseller community, driving significant net-new business opportunities in the SMB segment particularly.

"This success story is a testament to the strength of Tech Data systems, processes and our people, who have very quickly built a close working relationship with their counterparts at Dell."

Ralf Jordan, executive director, EMEA Broadline Distribution, Dell, said: "Tech Data has recently launched distribution of Dell products in 11 European countries and is our fastest growing distributor in Europe. Reaching more than 10,000 resellers and with sales growth of more than 300 per cent during last 12 months, we are pleased to recognise Tech Data Europe as our best newcomer."

Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has strengthened its Technology, Media and Telecommunications team in London with the appointment of Michael Bond as Mid-Markets Relationship Director.

He joins the eight strong team having previously worked in a similar role looking after clients in the Education, Communities and Government sector across the South East, where he was responsible for helping grow the Bank's portfolio of clients, doubling the size of the team servicing those clients in the process.

With 12 years in corporate banking, he will now be responsible for growing Lloyds Bank's portfolio of Technology, Media and Telecommunications businesses in the capital with a turnover of between £25 million and £100 million.

The team specialises in structuring tailored funding solutions for new and existing clients to provide risk management, financing, working capital and liquidity to dynamic businesses within a high-growth sector.

Simon Bumfrey, Area Director at the bank's TMT team in London, said: "Michael brings with him a great track record of relationship-led banking, in which he has helped grow our client base by ensuring we always deliver the bespoke, tailored funding packages that our clients require to help them prosper.

"By really getting under the skin of clients' businesses, Michael has shown himself able to shape the funding structure that is most appropriate for each individual customer, enabling them to fulfil their ambitions and evolve without putting undue stress on the balance sheet now or further down the track."

Bond added: "This is a sector where the appetite for mergers and acquisitions, and so for a variety of different types of debt funding, is high."

A survey of resellers, MSPs and systems integrators conducted by Agilitas revealed that 54% estimated their customers could lose anything from £10,000 up to £1m from just a single hour of downtime, while 40% are seeing over four hours of downtime when hardware goes wrong.

"Having IT hardware spares available has for many years been essential to business continuity and maximum uptime. However, as organisations become more dependent on technology, SLAs are being shortened and expectations raised," said Shaun Lynn, CEO of Agilitas. "Two hour part-to-site SLAs 24x7x365 are becoming the norm."

The research also revealed that 40% of customers see on average over four hours of downtime when hardware fails; 40% of providers find meeting SLAs the greatest challenge to providing inventory support to customers, and 25% sourcing parts; and 20% are struggling to get parts to customers on time in order to meet critical SLAs.

"Meeting SLAs and reducing downtime through flexible support should be the key aim for service providers," added Lynn.

"Inventory-as-a-service's ability to distribute parts quickly from multiple locations means that providers won't need to worry about getting a part from A-to-B again, coupled with direct access to technical and remote support 24x7x365."

Agilitas also surveyed service providers running their own in-house operations, revealing that a quarter currently run complete in-house inventory operations despite the rising cost of office and warehouse space; over a fifth aren't sure how much storing parts costs each year; and one in seven say the high costs of managing inventory is preventing investment in other areas of their business.

"The increasingly high capital (capex) cost of managing hardware often makes it unsustainable for many IT providers. Organisations want an always-on service, with two hour SLAs met 24x7x365. As a result, organisations moving towards inventory-as-a-service are reducing capex, as the service keeps costs stable, ensuring inventory management is an operational (opex), not capital expenditure," said Lynn.